The presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has said he had no apologies for attending church programmes in the course of his presidential ambition.
He said this in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, in reaction to the PDP vice presidential candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa’s comment that Obi was dragging the church into politics.
Okowa, who is also the Governor of Delta State, knocked Obi for frequently visiting churches, an act many of his critics believed was a subtle campaign strategy.
In his response, Obi’s media aide described the comment as “uncharitable”, noting that it was on record that Obi attended programmes he was invited to, including those organised by the churches.
“Should Obi start shunning church events because of politics, even when we know that since leaving office in 2014, that Obi has visited over 1000 schools and hospitals owned by the Churches, offering them all manner of support for the upgrade of their schools and hospitals that serve the citizens of Nigeria,” he said.
Obienyem, while cautioning against bringing the name of the church into disrepute, said that those doing such were those linking genuine actions of patriots to politics, even when it was absolutely unnecessary.
Obienyem, who also said that the reference to politics was unnecessary because electioneering had not started, disagreed with Okowa on distinguishing those to be reached out to or not, saying: “Why would Okowa suggest that it is wrong for anybody to reach out to the churches?
“Is this not contemptuous of churches? Everybody is affected by the bad governance in the country and should expectedly be involved in the efforts to enthrone good governance.”
“He should be told about the difference between being politically aware and getting involved in active politics”, Obienyem said.
He said that very soon the same people would start to criminalise the encounter Obi was having with Nigerians in diaspora.
Assuring Nigerians that Obi would not get tired of preaching to Nigerians about good governance and the need for the people of Nigeria to take back their country, Obienyem called on other patriots to join in the crusade rather than wishing people to keep quiet so that the status quo would remain the same.